Part-Time Faculty at North County Colleges Unionize

The more than 800 part-time instructors in the North Orange County Community College District have become the last of their brethren in the county to have union representation.

While teachers in the county’s other community college districts belong to unions that represent all faculty, the part-time instructors in North Orange County are the only ones to form their own bargaining unit, and one of the few in the state.

Linda Cushing, president of Adjunct Faculty United, said the part-timers first went to the teachers union, United Faculty, to ask if it would represent them. “They said, ‘No, we’re a full-time faculty union’ and said, ‘Good luck’ and sent us on our way.”

But during the period when Adjunct Faculty organizers were trying to gain enough signatures to call an election on representation, the old union began a similar campaign.

“By that time we recognized we were probably better on our own,” Cushing said.

United Faculty officials could not be reached for comment.

The North Orange County district has the equivalent of 560 faculty slots. Those are filled by 350 full-timers and more than 800 part-timers, said Jeff Horsley, vice chancellor for human resources. The average full-time salary is about $50,000 a year.

Cushing said part-time teachers at North Orange County, which includes Fullerton and Cypress colleges and the School of Continuing Education, earn the equivalent of 57% of the full-timers, which doesn’t include retirement, medical care or other fringe benefits.

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Community colleges increasingly depend on part-time instructors. About 34% of the community college faculty statewide work part time. Many are called “freeway fliers” who zip between classes at schools miles from one another to make a living.

A report by the state auditor released in June found that if part-time faculty taught a full load based on their current salary, they would earn 31% less than full-time instructors.

The state has tried to remedy some of the problems. A bill Gov. Gray Davis signed in 1999 provides that the state pay for a portion of the office hours and medical benefits for part-time community college faculty.

In addition, the state community college system’s new budget contains $75 million for the first year of a program to improve the pay of part-time instructors.

The average part-timer in the North Orange County district, Cushing said, has taught there for five years, and some have taught there for every semester for 30 years.

Negotiations between North Orange and the Adjunct Faculty began in the summer. The most important issues, Cushing said, are equal pay for equal work and medical benefits. About half the union members have to pay for their own health insurance, she said.

District employees such as secretaries or maintenance workers, who work more than half-time, do receive medical benefits, which angers Cushing.

“We’re like a subclass of people who are supposed to be in a profession,” she said of part-time instructors.

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Horsley said the problems with health insurance are the cost and the problems of administration. One possibility is that part-timers will buy their own health insurance and receive a subsidy from the district.

The union has criticized the pace of the negotiations. “We are fearful that this is a planned strategy, hoping our huge initial backing will evaporate if nothing concrete is resolved in the next few months,” Cushing wrote in a letter to the news media.

The characterization surprised Horsley. “I feel we have a very good relationship at the table,” he said. “But there are going to be issues where we have differences and some where we are a fair distance apart.”